Consultation queries: FOI release

Information requested

Information relating to consultations over the last 5 years. In particular, information relating to:

• The average time taken over the last 5 years between closing a consultation and publishing an analysis of responses, as well as publishing the responses themselves
• The longest time taken, over the last 5 years, between closing a consultation and publishing an analysis of responses, as well as publishing the responses themselves
• The shortest time taken, over the last 5 years, between closing a consultation and publishing an analysis of responses, as well as publishing the responses themselves
• The average cost of consultations, including the cost of analysing responses, over the last 5 years
• The greatest cost of a consultation, including the cost of analysing responses, over the last 5 years
• The least cost of a consultation, including the cost of analysing responses, over the last 5 years

Response

The answer to your question is that we do not hold most of the information you have requested.

The Scottish Government does not routinely monitor and process most of the information requested, either centrally or across business areas.

We have calculated the time it would take to respond to your request in full, and this has been considered to exceed the cost threshold under Section 12(1) of FOISA due to the coordination across business areas and finance systems at the Scottish Government to produce this information accurately in the format requested.

We have included relevant information to respond to this request where possible below.

Average, longest and shortest time taken over the last 5 years between closing a consultation and publishing an analysis of responses, as well as publishing the responses themselves

We are not able to provide the average, longest or shortest time taken over the last five years between closing a consultation, publishing an analysis of consultation responses, and/or the publication of responses themselves. This is because it has been determined that to fulfil this aspect of the request, it would exceed the cost threshold under Section 12(1).

We would like to make the requester aware that under Section 25(1) this information is available on Scottish Government’s Citizen Space website and central website gov.scot.

All consultations from 2012 onwards are listed on Citizen Space. Each of these listings shows when a consultation was opened, when it was closed, and links to a dated publication of analysis of responses.The requester would be able to identify the closing date of each consultation within the past five years, then access the linked analysis from either Citizen Space, or using the search engine on gov.scot, where a publication date will be listed. The requester could also search gov.scot for any publication of responses associated with a consultation.

A calculation of the time between these two dates could then be carried out.

Average, greatest and least cost of a consultation, including the cost of analysing responses, over the last 5 years

We are not able to provide the average, greatest or least cost of analysing consultation responses over the last five years.

Under section 17(1), we are not able to share the cost of core Scottish Government staff time associated with analysing consultation responses because we do not collect this information.

Under Section 25(1), we would like to make the requester aware that information regarding third party organisations hired to conduct consultation analysis can be found on Public Contracts Scotland (PCS). PCS is a publicly searchable website and holds information relating to commissions made to organisations to conduct consultation analysis. For Scottish Government staff to obtain and prepare this information for the purposes of fulfilling this FOI request, this would meet the cost threshold under Section 12(1).

Only commissions that are under £50,000 and unregulated do not need to be published on PCS, but it is best practice and advised that all contracts are published on PCS. The only commissions not listed on PCS are those which have not been published for legal reasons, and commissions of this nature would likely not be eligible to be released under FOISA.

The value of each commission is detailed in the tender information on PCS. Any amendments to this value over the lifespan of the contract will be accounted for. A calculation using these values could be carried out by the requester.

We are able to share the cost associated with the Citizen Space consultation platform used by Scottish Government to conduct consultations over the past five years. This is a central cost that contributes to the facilitation of all consultations:

• 2021-22: £19,999 +VAT
• 2022-24: £40,000 +VAT (2 year contract, at £20k per year)
• 2024-25: £42,994.63 +VAT
• 2025-26: £42,994.63 +VAT

From 2024, the Scottish Government’s contract for Citizen Space changed to include free use of the platform for non-ministerial offices and executive agencies, as well as the inclusion of additional software such as Dialogue and Geospatial which had previously been paid for separately.

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, if you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202500483584 - Information released - Annex

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